MS-DOS Buffersize Could Cause Problem Opening Command Prompt

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51 and 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51 and 4.0 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY

When you use Control Panel Console to increase the command prompt screen buffer size, you may have difficulty accessing the command prompt the next time you try. You may either experience a long delay between the time you select the command prompt icon and the time the command window is loaded, or you may receive the following error message:

   Initialization of the dynamic link library <%systemrooot%>\Kernel32.dll
   failed. The process is terminating abnormally.

CAUSE

When you set the height and width of the screen buffer size to 9999, you are asking Kernel32.dll to allocate 190 MB of memory per command window. This can fail if you do not set your paging file to grow to more than 190 MB.

RESOLUTION

Set your paging file to accommodate the size required for the buffer size.

-or-

Set the buffer to a smaller number.

MORE INFORMATION

In Windows NT 4.0, a warning will appear below the Windows Preview window stating how much memory each Console window will use, if the settings use one MB of memory or more.